


Star Crushed

by 3311



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 01:22:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5072503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3311/pseuds/3311
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper pondering, and panicking slightly over his feelings for Mabel.<br/>The twins are 16 years old.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Star Crushed

Waddles repositioned himself on his little bed, restless. The potential bacon was curled up near the TV, his pink ears moving and perking up whenever they caught some noise from outside, his beady black eyes never looking away from the front door. "Me too, buddy" Dipper said in solidarity, glad not to be alone in his uneasiness.

It was a quiet night in the Pines' household. The twins’ luggage was resting near the door, ready for their departure to Gravity Falls, just like they had done every summer since they were 12. A ghost hunting show played on the TV, Dipper couldn't really make sense of any of the grainy EVPs, in part because of the interference caused by the sound of his own teeth chewing at his plastic pen, and in part because most of them were indistinguishable from static. Unfinished calculus sheets lied scattered around him, forgotten. He had stopped working on them exactly 20 minutes ago.

Dipper scowled at the clock for the tenth time in the last 5 minutes. His sister was now, exactly, 20 minutes late. Not officially late, since tonight their parents had granted her one extra hour for reasons completely beyond his comprehension. There had been a cryptic conversation about how their mother still remembered what it was to be a 16 year old girl and having to leave her boyfriend for a while, their father had given in soon after that. Dipper still felt oddly betrayed as he heard his dad's snores coming from his parents’ bedroom, with the background tap-tap of his mom's keyboard.

Their mother never went to sleep until her two children were home. Not that she ever had to stay up for Dipper. The twins curfew was at 10pm. Most nights he was home by 9:00, the library closed at 8:00 and California had no mysteries to chase after at night, not of the supernatural kind at least and he did not have that many friends who weren't fond of being home by 9:00 themselves, to work on their own homework, or personal projects. A few involved building robots, but most consisted of filming themselves playing videogames to upload their playthroughs to the internet, or watching Battlestar Galactica for the 45th time.

Anyway, 10p.m was late enough as it was! He didn't see why Mabel needed a whole extra hour to hang out with stupid Josh Reed. He felt a pang of guilt at that. Ok, Josh was actually alright, but the point was that Mabel was who-knows-where when she could be with her twin brother, doing absolutely crucial stuff! Like make fun of jumpy paranormal investigators, and maybe finishing their homework so they could have all the summer for themselves and find the chupacabra nest their great uncle Ford was trying to locate. Had been trying to locate it for the last two months, so far it had eluded him and Dipper wanted to beat him to it.

Dipper was certain Mabel could find it. She had the most precise inner radar when it came to baby animals; Chupacabra’s... cubs? may not be kittens, but still, he was certain Mabel would just trip over them given the opportunity... and just for the record, stupid Josh Reed wasn't even her boyfriend, for heaven's sake! At least, not yet.

10:25. It was like a time bomb waiting to explode right in Dipper's face.

Dipper hated Josh, or at least he endeavored in trying to hate him.

Hate was not a feeling that came naturally to Dipper Pines, and yet, he thought he was doing a decent job of it, particularly whenever he saw Josh talking to Mabel, laughing with Mabel, or worse! touching Mabel in any way. Once, stupid Josh Reed had softly pulled at one of Mabel's braids, it had been a cute, playful, dangerously loving gesture. Dipper had almost passed out because he had stopped breathing.  It was the overwhelming unfairness of it! Dipper had thought of doing exactly that more times that he could count, but he had never done it. He couldn’t. What if it was too much. What if in that moment Mabel could see what he felt reflected in his face. He couldn't take that risk.

Josh existing in near proximity to his twin was something Dipper certainly frowned upon, it couldn't be legal, there had to be at least one dimension, in the vast multiverse Great Uncle Ford had told him about, where he could get Josh arrested for all his transgressions. Which included being the captain of the male boxing team. The first time Josh had talked to Mabel he had asked her to teach him her left hook. Mabel had refused; It was a family technique after all. Three months later he had asked her out. She had not refused then, which had resulted in this very fit of nightmarish over thinking.

Josh was a good match for Mabel. Dipper knew that, and he wished he could be happy for his sister, but he was only... jealous, disgustingly so. He hated himself for it, and hate became an effortless feat then.

Mabel wasn't only his sister or his twin. She was his best friend. They had always been together. Always been a team. There was no one more important to him. Wasn't that the plot of 99% of romance movies out there? It certainly seemed like it, and thanks to Mabel we was sure he could talk with some authority on the subject. 

Childhood friends becoming lovers, nobody batted an eyelid at that. Or those super weird period dramas that made Mabel and Grunkle Stan cry. Never mind the 40 year old men marrying girls 20 years younger, which...well, yikes! In some of those stories the hero and heroine were raised just like siblings and then ended up together, they married and got a creepy gothic mansion from a dead relative and it wasn’t weird or wrong. It was supposed to be romantic and many other words you usually saw written in pink cursive. 

He bit his pen a bit harder. Why couldn't that work for them?

He had spent an alarming amount of the last year feeling guilty, all because of his new, stupid, nonsensical feelings. Sometimes he wished they weren't siblings, and every time the thought crossed his mind he felt sick.

They were a matching set, a package deal. But the what-ifs refused to stop buzzing at the back of his mind.

He had tried to conjure some sort of far-fetched imaginary scenario. An alternative reality where he would arrive to Gravity Falls somehow, getting to meet her by chance in the Mystery Shack.

It hadn't been hard to decide which would be the outsider and which the Gravity Falls native. Dipper was fascinated and intrigued by its mysteries. He wanted to study and understand them, prod and dissect. See it all through hard, cold science, not unlike Great Uncle Ford.

But Mabel was the one who had real magic in her, Dipper thought he could almost see it sparking from the tip of her fingers. Especially when she was in Gravity Falls, her light shined the brightest there. She had a way of flowing with the supernatural, of reflecting its light. She didn't need to understand or analyze it, for her it simply was.

Yup! Mabel belonged there with Grunkle Stan, more so than Dipper or even Great Uncle Ford ever would. He guessed it was a bit ironic and Great Uncle Ford would hate to hear it, but Dipper knew it was a cold fact, just like the sheet of correct answers in his calculus book.

Facts and exact calculations; that was what Dipper was good at. The realm of make believe wasn't his territory. This resulted in most of his daydreams being indistinguishable from unbiased reality.

Finding the journals. Him crushing stupidly on Wendy while Mabel crushed on assorted paranormal creatures. Being terrorized by Bill. Casually avoiding The Armageddon. Visiting Gravity Falls every summer after that with varying results. Studying under Ford, while Mabel danced, and sang, and knitted, and learned her devilish left hook and a collection of much shadier moves from Grunkle Stan. Mabel Pines was feared in the ring as much as she was loved outside of it.

In his factual daydreams just like it had happened in reality, it was at their 16th birthday party when he realized, with monstrous clarity -just as Mabel cut the first piece of cake for him, like she always did. Eating a big chunk of frosting from it, like she always denied she did- that he loved her.

To say that he loved her more than a sister or a friend wasn't quite right. She already was the person he loved most in the world. In the Universe. He suspected he loved her more than he loved himself. He just wanted.. more. To be able to be there for her in a different way. A way that would mean all her kisses would be only for him. A way that would mean that she wouldn't have to date any other bumbling idiot. He could be that for her! He was certainly an idiot, a smart idiot but, still, an idiot. He was being honest here.

This is where the key piece of his daydreams came into play, just for the shortest amount of time he allowed himself to pretend they weren't related. He would ask her out. They would go on cheesy, ridiculous dates, which knowing them, they would spend trying to make the other laugh until one of them spit their drink. He would get to pepper her face with soft kisses, and she would laugh and tell him it tickled. He would get to play with her hands, kiss her palm if she had hurt them in a boxing match. He would run his fingers through her hair, probably getting tangled in it because she hadn't brushed it yet. They would cuddle as they camped in the woods, probably searching for that chupacabra’s nest. He would get to find out what her lips tasted like and-

Dipper felt the overwhelming guilt rip through his pipe dreams. Dreams made by an amateur dreamer couldn't get too far before being crushed by reality and other hard things like, for example, basic morals.

He allowed himself to hope for an alternative timeline, somewhere in all those dimensions he knew existed because his uncle had seen them,  where at least one version of him had a chance.

" _Yeah... Chances_ " a dismissive voice that sounded suspiciously like Grunkle Stan murmured at the back of his mind.

Dipper chewed into his pen again.

This version of him was stuck in this reality where his flimsy dreams would- could never be. Instead, he got to see what seemed like a never ending parade of sweaty high schoolers, -that were not him!- asking his sister out. Every time Mabel went out with someone -which was not near as often as his brain led him to believe, but often enough- every cell in his body, every particle of what Dipper suspected was his soul, screamed at him "That should be you!!" Dipper agreed and wanted to punch himself in the face for it.

"I'm home!" 10:45. Dipper had an imperative need to cut a red wire to avoid disaster.

"What's up, Dipper!" His sister greeted him, as she flopped herself on the floor next to Waddles and gave the pig a big hug.

"Nothing much" His fried brain cells begged to differ "mom saved  some dinner for you" he said as he closed his books, making space on the couch for her

"No, thank you! We had a very big dinner, I can hardly move"

"How was your... date?" he really didn't want to know

"It was fine" Mabel said, a bit wearily, which made Dipper feel better, and then worse for feeling better about it. Mabel curled up on the floor next to her porcine best friend. Her eyes fixed on the tv screen now displaying the subtitles for a class A EVP that went "PFFFFFFFFFFTTT" with the subtitles reading  "That's sick, bro!"

"Josh kissed me today" she said suddenly.

Dipper choked on his spit.

"Oh.. Oh,  boy!"

"Dipper.."

"Ok, no, I'm ok. I'm ready for this potentially very awkward conversation.. just.. that's.. does this mean you two are dating now.. and.. stuff?" He tried not to think of what this stuff entailed.

"No." Mabel said quietly "He asked but I told him I would think about it. That I would tell him when I came back, but Dipper, Josh kissed me today" she said sitting up to look up at her brother "and do you know what I felt?!"

"ehhh.." Dipper groaned awkwardly

"Nothing! Nothing at all! I think there must be something wrong with me, Dipper! Because it doesn't matter who it is, it's just... It's boring! so boring, Dipper! shouldn't I feel anything at all? Josh is nice and cute, and he really likes me and what else do I want?! I thought being in love and dating would be different.. all those books and movies, Grenda and Marius! Soos and Melody! Grunkle Stan and... never mind that" She said, hurriedly "it can't be all a lie, right?! I thought it would be... not boring at least! It’s all just so.. charmless! I spend half my dates thinking I want to come home to draw or play with waddles, and I start to space out wondering what nerdy thing are you up to here. Can you imagine, Dipper? And I come home and you are doing calculus homework! and I'm relieved, Dipper. Relieved to see the.. ugh! calculus books!  because somehow, seeing you working on math is less boring that going out with a really cute guy that likes me!" She plopped back on the carpet with an injured groan. Waddles hurried to give her a kiss on her nose.

"Calculus is not that bad, you know-" Dipper said offhandedly, trying for all that it was worth not to be jealous of Waddles, that was a low he was not going to reach.

"Dipper..."

"There's nothing wrong with you, Mabel!”  Dipper knew this for a fact, he had taken all that was wrong with their gene pool “Maybe.. maybe it's just that those guys are not right for you" of course! no one but him was right for Mabel. He made a mental note to punch himself in the face, twice.

"Maybe I should take to the sea, try to find Mermando" That sounded much more like herself.

"Wasn't he engaged?"

"Maybe he has a cousin"

"Come on Mabel, don't be sad! Soon we will be in Gravity Falls with Grunkle Stan, Great Uncle Ford and Soos! You will get to see Candy and Grenda maybe even Wendy if she didn't go in some weird trip for break. It will be great! Now, do you want to watch this ghost hunting show with me or-"

"I want popcorn" His sister whined as she climbed onto the couch

"I thought you were full."

"Popcorn is not food, Dipper! Popcorn is a feeling I feel when I watch ghost hunting shows"

"Fine, popcorn it is then"

This was fine. This was excellent, Dipper thought as he waited for the microwave to beep. He didn't need much more than this. All he wanted was to have Mabel by his side. He tried not to worry, tried not to think of how it would feel when she didn't reject Josh, or the next Josh, or the next. Someday he would lose her to someone and he didn't want to think about it, today had not been that day.

He filled a bowl with popcorn, and took a bag of jelly beans from their mother not so secret snack stash. He suspected jelly beans were also a feeling.

He smiled when he saw his twin, sitting on the couch with waddles curled up on her lap.

"Here you go, feelings for you!" He said, giving the snacks to his sister and sitting next to her.

"ahh, so warm!" She said contentedly, as she directed her attention to the TV screen "I really like this show, the ghosts always sound like surfers from the 90's"  

"That or at least a dial up connection" Dipper chuckled, watching his sister fish the orange jelly beans from the bag, piling them next to her, and the black licorice ones in another pile near Dipper. Black licorice was his favorite flavor "this is my favorite episode ever" it was the truth, even if he had no idea which episode it was.

The paranormal investigators played the grainy "PFFFFFTTT" EVP for the 25th time, very slowly, while waddles snored between the twins, completely at peace now that the Mabeless void had been repaired.


End file.
